Lighthouse and Keepers Cottage
by D Hackett
Title
Lighthouse and Keepers Cottage
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
Lighthouse and Keepers Cottage by D Hackett
The Lighthouse is St. Augustine's oldest surviving brick structure, and today the site is restored to colors and materials used the year 1888. In 1876, a brick light keeper's house was added to the property, a triplex that held two families and a young, single, 2nd assistant keeper, most often of Menorcan descent. Brick summer kitchens were added in 1886. In 1910 10,000 tourists visited the property. During World War II armed Coastguardsmen stood guard atop the tower, fixed jeeps in the 1836 garage and lived in a small barracks building. Light keepers' and their assistants lived and worked at the Light Station until the tower was automated in 1955. After that time Lamplighters lived off site, but also took over maintaining the buoys in the harbor.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse rises 165 feet above sea level and contains 219 steps that are climbed by visitors. At the top, the original, first order Fresnel lens still serves the beacon, but today is lit by a 1000 watt bulb, and maintained by the museum and volunteers. The St. Augustine lens consists of 370 hand-cut glass prisms arranged in a beehive shape towering twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter. Ascend 219 steps and uncover 140 years of history on your climb to the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse. At the top, youll be treated to a 360 view that includes historic St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.
Many visitors and others believe that the lighthouse and surrounding buildings have a history of paranormal activity. Allegedly, visitors and workers have seen moving shadows, heard voices and unexplained sounds, and seen the figures of two little girls standing on the lighthouse catwalk (who purportedly were daughters of Hezekiah Pittee, Superintendent of Lighthouse Construction, during the 1870s; the girls drowned in an accident during the building of the tower). Other reports are of a woman seen on the lighthouse stairway or walking in the yard outside the buildings, and the figure of a man who roams the basement, or the unexplained smell of cigar smoke. The male figure is said to possibly be Civil War hero and former lighthouse keeper William A. Harn.
Stories like these led The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to the site, where they shot an episode of the Syfy show Ghost Hunters. During this episode, TAPS claim to have captured a few mysterious incidents on video, such as the disembodied voice of a woman crying "help me", and a shadowy figure moving about the stairs above them. One of their DVR cameras also captured what appeared to be a figure looking over the railing of the lighthouse. A TAPS member called the Lighthouse the "Mona Lisa of paranormal sites".[20] Due to the ratings success of the first investigation, TAPS later returned for a follow-up investigation and experienced similar incidents.
Today, the St. Augustine Light Station consists of the 165-foot (50 m) 1874 tower, the 1876 Keepers' House, two summer kitchens added in 1886, a 1941 U.S. Coast Guard barracks and a 1936 garage that was home to a jeep repair facility during World War II. The site is also a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station
Uploaded
January 13th, 2015
Embed
Share
Similar Images
Comments (25)
Recently Viewed
